Monday, August 26, 2013

Most people know little about parking meters except that they always run fast.

But those meters have figured in a political dispute this year pitting motorists against the cities, the cities against the state and the drivers against just about everybody. Gov. Brown, meanwhile, has weighed in on the side of the drivers.

At issue is what happens when a driver parks at a broken meter? How is the charge set? Does the motorist get a ticket, even though the elapsed time is unknown? Some drivers say they get gouged and they have no recourse. Some cities say the meters are deliberately broken so drivers will escape paying.

For the cities, the answer is simple: It’s up to them to decide...

...The governor disagreed.

He signed legislation, AB 61 by Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D-Los Angeles, requiring the cities to have a uniform policy statewide. The new law takes effect Jan. 1 and will remain in effect for three years unless otherwise renewed by lawmakers. It allows a motorist to park in a space with a broken meter for up to the maximum amount of time set by parking enforcement officials, without getting a ticket.

Gatto said his bill was prompted in part by an NBC report in L.A. that showed the city had issued 17,000 parking tickets in a single year for meters that were reported as malfunctioning.

“’Local control’ does not provide a right to fleece taxpayers,” he said in a written statement following the governor’s Aug. 12 action. “The question of parking at a broken meter should not be up for review or reconsideration every six months, nor should motorists be subject to confusing ordinances as they drive from city to city.”

Traditionally, the cities operate the meters, enforce the parking ordinances, set the rates and decide how to handle the money they collect. It’s been like that since the 1930s, when traffic-clogged, revenue-starved cities saw the potential in parking meters. In a city like Los Angeles, with some 38,000 parking meters and some $150 million annually from parking tickets, this means big money and major government activity that interacts in a direct way with the citizenry. At any one time, perhaps 10 percent of the meters are broken, although the breakage rate for the new electronic meters is far less -- of the thousands of new meters only a handful have broken, the city says.

In crowded, space-limited San Francisco, parking enforcement is aggressive, partly because it is seen as an anti-congestion tool. In San Francisco, they take parking violations seriously, with fines ranging from $46 for a simple transgression, $74 for an expired meter in the downtown core and $880 for misusing a handicapped placard.

The cities see parking enforcement as part of local jurisdiction. When meters are broken, a motorist can leave a note on the car explaining the situation, and that typically avoids a potential ticket – if the motorist doesn’t stay in the space longer than the legal limit that would have applied with the meter in place.

A flickr user, Atwater Village Newbie, posted this photo of a broken parking meter, along with the question, "Why are so many parking meters along Glendale Boulevard in Atwater Village so often out of order?"(Photo from www.flickr.com/)

The problem is, the meters get broken and aren’t speedily fixed.

“We have a severe problem with the meters always being broken,” said Luis Lopez, a board director of the Chamber of Commerce in Atwater Village, a community of about 16,000 in northeast Los Angeles. “The city of Los Angeles is not very quick to fix those meters. There could be a $250 fine for parking at a broken meter and the city wouldn’t fix them.” The high fine and the broken meters discourage people from parking and patronizing businesses, which is at the heart of Lopez’s concern.

“Parking is a big issue in our community. As far as business owners go, we rely on good parking,” he added.

Last year, a bill similar to Gatto’s AB 61 was approved, SB 1388 by Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, which allowed cities to participate in to a statewide parking meter enforcement regulation. But Gatto said loopholes in the law enabled cities to restrict parking, prompting the latest bill.

The cities had signed off on the earlier legislation, because the locals could decide whether to opt in – or not.

“Triple A came to us because their members were expressing frustration because they didn’t know what the statewide policy was,” said Jennifer Whiting of the League of California Cities. “In some cities you could park, in some cities you couldn’t park. In particular, Mr. Gattos’ bill was promoted in the L.A. area, and L.A. had taken a second look at the ordinance.”

After receiving complaints from motorists, the L.A. City Council repealed the ordinance allowing ticketing at broken meters, but left open the possibility of revisiting the issue after six months. Gatto’s bill bars L.A. from looking at the issue gain in six months...

You can read the rest of the article by visiting Capitol Weekly's website HERE

Can you imagine being faced with the prospect of having to pay thousands of dollars to put up a $20 sign?

As crazy as it sounds, that’s exactly what happened to a coffee-shop owner from our area when he was threatened with a several hundred-thousand dollar lawsuit for allegedly failing to post a warning sign that beer can cause cancer. In 2012 and 2013, more than three dozen small businesses in Southern California (including several restaurants and cafés in Pasadena, Glendale, Burbank and Los Angeles) were threatened with similar lawsuits—with some paying thousands of dollars in settlements and attorneys’ fees to avoid spending precious time and money defending themselves in court.

These suits are all a result of California’s Proposition 65. Approved by voters in 1986, the act was intended to prevent and warn the public about possible exposure to carcinogens. Regrettably, there are unscrupulous individuals who have taken advantage of certain provisions in Prop. 65 to ensnare small businesses in lawsuits that were never contemplated by the voters when they passed it.

Brett Schoenhals, Owner of the Coffee Table in Eagle Rockand a member of my Small-Business Advisory Commissionwas threatened with litigation under Prop. 65.

To help these people, and all of us who believe in sensible government, I’ve introduced AB 227, which would allow small businesses to correct technical signage violations of Prop. 65 within fourteen days and pay a small civil fine. It essentially creates a “fix-it ticket” for signage violations for the most common, everyday substances covered under Prop. 65. If the business owners comply, they would be safe from legal action — including the crushing $2,500 per-day retroactive fine — plus legal fees, and the stress of battling meritless litigation.

In May, following the exposure I and my Small Business Advisory Commission brought to this issue, Governor Brown announced his support for my AB 227, and said that he was open to additional reforms. I am proud to have brought together so many other individuals and organizations that are normally on opposite sides. It’s not every day that business groups, environmental-justice coalitions, organized labor, and attorneys’ organizations agree on anything, much less how to reform Prop. 65 — a measure that has been substantively amended just once in nearly 30 years.

Threatening a small business with a lawsuit for serving its customers coffee with their breakfast, a burger with their lunch, or a glass of wine with dinner is absurd. Most business owners work hard to follow the law and protect customers so they return. This is especially true with the majority of our local business owners whose customers are neighbors, friends and relatives.

By giving businesses the opportunity to post a sign and fix a simple mistake, AB 227 strikes a balance by helping businesses avoid senseless litigation while preserving the public’s ability to obtain proper warnings about dangerous chemicals. It shouldn’t cost California’s small businesses thousands of dollars because of issues with a $20 sign.

A few weeks ago we shared that there is an effort to take California license plates back to a more simpler, classic time by way reproducing plates from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. The effort is very small and would bring a very design friendly plate to California cars, allowing your car to make a statement without you actually having to do all that much at the DMV. It only makes sense that such a “cool” little effort was started by an LA person. Who is responsible for it? Assemblyman Mike Gatto, a native Angeleno who represents the 43rd District, an area that covers Silver Lake, Glendale, Atwater Village, Burbank, Los Feliz, and more.

Gatto is one of those “cool” politician who is fighting the good fight in all the best ways. Annoyed about getting a ticket on a broken parking meter? Mike Gatto just fixed that. Think we need more dog parks? Gatto’s on that. Annoyed you were a small batch food producer who couldn’t sell goods? Mike took care of that too. He definitely knows what civic issues to take care of and is doing some pretty wild things in his position. We had a quick chat with him about his latest effort—the Legacy License Plates—to learn more about where the idea came from and what he needs to make it a reality.

The Legacy License Plate project is something that has gotten a great response from people as they bring a vintage, minimal license plate aesthetic to modern and classic cars. What sparked the idea to bring them back?

California Government doesn’t do much for the thousands of car enthusiasts in our state, and most laws that apply to them tell them they can’t do certain things. The idea came to me after seeing all the different license plates legislators were pushing, things like “save the whales” plates and such. I tried to think of the one type of plate that car collectors really wanted, in original DMV form. So many collectors buy old plates at swap meets, only to find they are forgeries or not what they wanted. This is a way to get original DMV plates, personalized how a collector wants them, for their classic cars.

Do you feel that the project resonates with a specific type of Californian? Are you guys finding that the people supporting the project are a certain “type”?

This project is a natural fit for any Californian, since we are a state where car culture means a lot to us. There’s a lot of nostalgia for the great models and looks of the past.

What obstacles do you see coming the way of the Legacy project? It seems like such a cool, design friendly, “Duh!” project that surely will pass.

The only obstacle is reaching the 7,500 mark for each plate. So far the response has been good, especially for the black plate, with over 4,200 approved applications. We could see those in production as early as next January if the numbers stay consistent. But people should apply ASAP.

How have Angelenos been responding to the project? Do you imagine it has the potential to change the license plate landscape in the city?

At this point, we have no official breakdown of where the registrations are coming from, but I would imagine that Angelenos have been a major part of it. I attend car shows in the area from time to time, and I get some nice “thank yous” from area residents too!

How quickly could these plates start rolling out? The deadline is in 2015 but could they be released earlier if there is enough support?

If the registration keeps its current pace, we could see the black plates as soon as next January. This is one of those things where, the more word gets out, the better it is for everyone. Remember, the first guy who ordered has to wait for the 7500th to order, for the DMV to actually start making the plates, since it’s a cost issue. Thanks for your help in spreading the word!

This is all very exciting and we can most definitely see these becoming a “thing” amongst the LA design clique, becoming a marker of your forward thinking tastes. We hope so! Although we don’t think that they suit our really terrible 2001 Volkswagen New Beetle that we hate, we will likely be getting us these plates to help support the effort. Learn more about the Legacy Plates here and pre-order them from this form here. Be sure to check out Mike’s website here and follow him on Twitter for live updates

This article originally appeared in "Los Angeles I'm Yours." You can read this article and more HERE

Sacramento, CA – Yesterday, the California Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution authored by Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles) that directs the federal government to use its constitutional treaty powers to require trading partners to gradually raise their minimum wages, raising the standards of living in those countries, and making U.S. workers and exports more competitive.

Artificially depressed global wages, like Indonesia’s minimum wage of 46 cents an hour, make it nearly impossible for higher-paying nations to compete. These practices are increasingly viewed as a form of unfair trade, much like the currency manipulation that Mitt Romney so famously decried during his 2012 presidential campaign.

Congress, by statute, has ordered the United States Trade Representative to seek input from the fifty states on the effects of, and policies relating to, globalization. Assembly Joint Resolution (AJR) 12 provides such guidance. It enshrines the position of the state of California that future treaties, trade agreements, and relevant international protocols should require a gradually increasing wage in signatory nations.

Since the dawn of the republic, the United States has used its treaty power to require things like free elections (with Iraq, after the Iraq war), respect for U.S. companies’ patent and intellectual property rights (in various treaties), and of course, currency valuations (in the various Bretton Woods accords, etc.).

The Assembly passed AJR 12 by a vote of 52-21.

“American workers and companies are having trouble competing because workers are paid inhumane rates in some other countries,” said Gatto. “This ‘race to the bottom’ hurts workers around the world and causes thousands of U.S. jobs to be sent overseas each year. Gradually increasing international wages, even from 50 cents an hour to one dollar, would make U.S. exporters, from movie makers to automakers, more competitive, and would help raise billions out of poverty.”

Gatto’s floor speech endeavored to connect the bill to each of his colleagues and their constituents. He stated that a “no” vote on AJR 12 was tantamount to a statement that one likes calling one’s cell-phone or computer provider, only to be routed to an overseas call center. Traditionally, such customer-service jobs have been among the most vulnerable to outsourcing from artificially depressed global wages.

The concept in AJR 12 has been supported and championed by economist Richard Duncan, author of “The Corruption of Capitalism: A strategy to rebalance the global economy and restore sustainable growth,” and a frequent television contributor. Duncan is the Chief Economist for Blackhorse Asset Management, which is affiliated with several high-performing hedge funds. Duncan is not alone among cutting-edge economists who view this policy as one of the few proposals that can actually help correct the vast trade and currency imbalances caused by globalization.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

The Burbank Leader article below is about a truly extraordinary man who undertook an incredible journey. I am honored to know that Gabriel Cordell lives in the district, and hope you will help me share his inspiring story. Congratulations Gabriel Cordell!

Paraplegic isn't bound by his wheelchair: first to roll across U.S.

Buoyed by crowds and a drive to do something 'extraordinary,' man rolls across the U.S.

By Alene Tchekmedyian
alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Gabriel Cordell had been on the road for about three months.

The 42-year-old paraplegic was drenched in sweat, rolling his wheelchair through one of the most grueling stretches of his 3,100-mile, 99-day journey across the United States: the winding hills of Pennsylvania against the debilitating summer heat and humidity.

By this point, he'd ripped through dozens of pairs of gloves, recorded hundreds of hours of footage for his documentary, "Roll with Me," and busted just one set of tires on his wheelchair after rolling through roughly 2,800 miles of land since taking off in April from the Burbank YMCA.

He was exhausted.

His eyes, as always, faced the ground. Looking ahead would only discourage him.

That's until a sea of children at summer camp, clad in yellow and red T-shirts, ran toward him, fist-pumping, clapping and cheering. Several of Cordell's crew members leading the way in a 31-foot RV had briefed the campers on Cordell's mission —he'd be the first person to roll across the United States in a manual wheelchair.

In awe, they wanted to cheer him on.

"As adults, you think this guy is minus an ability," said "Roll with Me" co-producer Chris Yanke. "To the kids, he was like a superhero."

Cordell was stunned.

"It was fuel for the soul at that particular moment," he said.

Cordell has been bound to a wheelchair for more than two decades.

On Oct. 17, 1992, he was on his way to his first acting audition in New York City. He usually took the train into the city from Long Island, but on that day, he drove. Five blocks from his home, a driver blew a red light and T-boned his Jeep Wrangler.

He was ejected from the car and hit his back against a telephone poll, crushing his spinal cord.

He woke up in the middle of the street, his steering wheel still in his hands. At that moment, he knew.

I'm paralyzed.

Years before the accident, Cordell promised himself that he was going to do something "extraordinary" with his life.

Last summer, after spending five years addicted to cocaine and crystal meth, he realized he was running out of time.

"As quickly as I checked out, I checked back in," Cordell said. "I just woke up and said, 'I'm done.'"

After doing some research, he discovered that no one had rolled across the country in a standard wheelchair. So he joined the Burbank YMCA and spent the next eight months training — physically and mentally — for his trek across the country.

His sister, Abeer Gilbert, was just one of many who called him crazy.

"I thought he was out of his mind," she said.

That didn't stop him.

On April 1, all cameras were on Cordell as he rolled out of the Burbank YMCA. Over the course of 99 days, Cordell averaged 32 miles a day, at roughly 5 miles per hour.

There were scares along the way, including a pair of pit bulls in Arizona that nearly attacked him, and the deadly tornado that ripped through Oklahoma.

"I was in pain the whole time," Cordell recalled, adding that he had just three restful nights of sleep.

Day to day, the journey could even get boring, said Derek Gibbs, a 28-year-old cyclist who joined the crew in New Mexico.

"We would wake up, take a deep breath and say, 'OK, just go,'" Gibbs said, adding that Cordell's determination kept him going. "He doesn't have gears to make it easier. I thought, 'If this guy's doing it, I should never have a problem.'"

The hundreds, if not thousands, of people the team encountered along the way provided motivation — like the wheelchair basketball team that rolled Cordell through his 1,000th mile, and the hundreds of people cheering at his alma mater, West Hempstead High School, on July 8 as he crossed his finish line.

"It became bigger than me," Cordell said. "It quickly turned into inspiring people across this nation."

NOTE: A special thank you to the Burbank YMCA, Long Island YMCA, and Rollwithme.org for posting photo's of Gabriel's journey. You can read this article and more by visiting the Burbank Leader at www.burbankleader.com# # #

Jennifer Zelinski does an elbow plank as her dog Wash looks around the Barrington Dog Park, where owners were working out with their pets in tow. (Los Angeles Times / July 10, 2013)

By Carla Hall
August 13, 2013, 6:03 p.m.

There are few urban spaces more fun to visit than a dog park, even if you don’t have a dog.

Dog parks are also essential for the cooped-up city dog without his or her own private field to romp through. And they’re usually a safe alternative to walking the dog. But, as with all publicly run spaces, there is the question of the municipality’s liability. And those kinds of concerns were stopping small and medium-size cities from opening dog parks.

Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles), whose district covers Burbank, Glendale, the Hollywood Hills and Silver Lake among other communities, introduced AB 265, which limits the liability that cities and counties face when operating dog parks. He credits Glendale City Council member Laura Friedman with getting him launched on the bill after Friedman told him that one of Glendale's biggest concerns about opening a dog park was the liability. Gov. Jerry Brown (whose own dog, Sutter, has traveled the state) signed the bill into law Monday. The state has similarly imposed limited liability under some conditions for public skate parks.

Letting your canine run at the dog park generally isn’t as risky as skateboarding -- neither you nor your dog is likely to break any bones. But obviously, dogs sometimes do bite or attack people and other dogs. State law already holds dog owners liable for any injury or death caused by their dogs in a dog park. That will continue to be the case. But victims who can’t recover costs from dog owners theoretically could turn to the city or county for damages. The new law makes dog park operators not liable for an injury that results solely from an attack by a dog and is not in any way connected to the operation of the park.

This is a good and smart legal change that should help smaller communities throughout the state set up needed dog parks. And it’s another reminder that owners of dogs need to be careful with their pets no matter where they are. Everyone, human and canine, needs to be responsible in a dog park.

Monday, August 12, 2013

Achievement of Excellence In
Procurement Award a First for City

BURBANK, Calif. (July 24,
2013) – The City of Burbank has been awarded the prestigious Achievement of
Excellence in Procurement Award by the National Procurement Institute for 2013.
The award recognizes public agencies and non-profit organizations for best
practices and organizational excellence when obtaining goods and services.

“I'm proud of the staff
and the efforts that they've taken to achieve this award” said Jennifer Becker,
Deputy Financial Services Director for the City of Burbank. “Purchasing Manager,
Paul Herman and his staff have worked a number of years to continually enhance
our ability to offer a fair and competitive bid process and as a result receive
maximum value for our tax dollars. This award reflects all of that hard
work.”

Burbank was
recognized among 179 other awardees for 2013 who met the criteria for this
annual award. Agencies receiving the award demonstrate excellence in the areas
of innovation, professionalism, productivity, leadership and utilization of
online bidding processes.

Homenetmen Western USA Region Educational Committee is holding a workshop on teen substance and alcohol abuse on Tuesday Aug. 13 at 7 p.m. The workshop will be held at St. Mary’s Armenian Apostolic Church hall at 500 S. Central Ave. in Glendale.

The free workshop/seminar is designed for parents, chapter executives, division leadership, general public and all members of the Homenetmen family preparing for leadership positions.

The Homenetmen Committee feels strongly that all Homenetmen members and volunteers involved with the organization, community and leadership positions should be equipped with this essential information and will benefit from information on intervention, prevention and resources.

Mike Gatto’s Legislation to End Unfair Parking Tickets SIGNED BY GOVERNOR BROWN

Creates uniform statewide policy, binding on all cities

Sacramento, CA – Assemblyman Mike Gatto’s (D-Los Angeles) legislation to prohibit local governments from fleecing motorists who park at broken parking meters was signed by Governor Brown today. Gatto introduced the bill in January 2013 due to outrage, both popular and personal, at cities who were changing their parking laws to make them unfair to motorists. The measure will ensure cities such as Los Angeles fix their broken meters in a responsive and timely manner by prohibiting them from ticketing cars parked at such meters.

In response to Assemblyman Gatto’s legislation, the Los Angeles City Council rushed to temporarily repeal their ordinance that allows for ticketing at broken meters, but voted to preserve their ability to reinstate the unfair policy after a six-month trial. AB 61 would eliminate this authority and allow motorists to park in spaces controlled by a broken meter for the maximum time allowed by the meter.

“'Local control' does not provide a right to fleece taxpayers," said Gatto. “The question of parking at a broken meter should not be up for review or reconsideration every six months, nor should motorists be subject to confusing ordinances as they drive from city to city. It’s time to end this unfair practice throughout California.”

AB 61 guarantees that parking spots remain available to the motorists, shop owners, and small businesses that rely on them, even when the meter is not working properly. This was the law in California from 1935 to 2012, until a few cities began considering ordinances to reverse it, and the Los Angeles City Council actually passed an ordinance allowing for the ticketing of drivers who park at broken meters.

“Taxpayers already pay for street maintenance, meter installation, and meter upkeep,” said Gatto. “Local governments should take responsibility and keep parking meters in good working order, not squeeze a double-penalty out of cash-strapped citizens.”

An NBC4 investigative report found that, in a single year, more than 17,000 parking tickets had been issued for meters that had been reported to the City of Los Angeles as malfunctioning or broken. The overwhelming majority of these meters were not intentionally broken by motorists but, rather, had internal malfunctions which the city had failed to fix. As cities transition from traditional meters to electronic ATM-like parking kiosks, which are more durable but subject to the intricacies of complex electronics and the whim of Internet connections, this pattern is expected to stay the same.

“Forcing a motorist to drive around aimlessly in search of a parking spot is not healthy for the driver or for the environment,” said Gatto. “And it’s just wrong to force a driver into an expensive lot when perfectly good spots are available on the street.”

Sacramento, CA – Assemblyman Mike Gatto’s (D-Los Angeles) bill to help local governments create dog parks was signed into law today by Governor Jerry Brown. The idea for the bill came from Glendale City Councilmember Laura Friedman, who told Gatto that liability concerns were preventing small- and medium-sized cities from siting dog parks.

“When Glendale was considering opening a dog park, one of the biggest concerns was protecting the City from liability,” said Friedman. “I approached Assemblyman Gatto and am glad to see real action to address this problem for Glendale and other cities.”

Gatto’s AB 265 limits the liability that cities and counties face when operating dog parks and protects them from litigants who claim, for example, that they were unaware of potential dangers. The current legal situation is muddled, causing many local governments to feel uncertain about potential liability.

Burbank City Councilman Jess Talamantes echoed the importance of AB 265. “As a Councilman, I must be responsible with the city’s public finances and ensure that Burbank is protected from liability. Assemblyman Gatto’s bill provides greater certainty that Burbank’s potential future investment in a dog park will not come back to bite us.”

AB 265’s Republican supporter, Assemblyman Brian Maienschein (R-San Diego), who served eight years on the San Diego City Council, expressed similar sentiments, saying “this bill would have made my life significantly easier when I was on the San Diego City Council and trying to site a dog park.”

“Dog parks help build safer and stronger communities by providing a public space for neighbors to interact while training and socializing their dogs,” said Assemblyman Gatto. “We should not allow liability concerns to be a barrier to creating these open spaces, especially in small- and medium-sized cities that cannot afford to self-insure.”

Jennifer Fearing of the Humane Society of the United States emphasized the social importance of dog parks, especially for animal lovers with physical ailments. “Dog parks enable senior citizens and people with disabilities, who cannot always walk their dogs, a safe alternative,” said Fearing. “The Humane Society is glad for an opportunity to support a bill with the noble goal of nurturing the human-animal bond.”

Precedent exists for the state limiting liability to encourage specialized open spaces. In 1997, the state imposed limited liability under certain circumstances for cities that open skate parks. State lawmakers reasoned that more recreation opportunities were needed, but that skateboarding is inherently dangerous, and should be done at the users’ risk, and without massive liability for cities and their taxpayers.

Friday, August 9, 2013

Legislators are making cautious progress on crafting a state water
bond to go before voters next year, said an assemblyman who’s a member
of the working group.

“The goal is that it will be on there in 2014,” Assemblyman Mike Gatto,
D-Los Angeles, said on Thursday. Gatto is part of a team of legislators
from both parties hashing out the contents of the potential bond, which
was bumped from the ballot in 2010 and 2012 because of fears it
wouldn’t pass or would detract from other ballot measures.

Gatto said the caution his group is exhibiting reflects that. There’s
little debate about whether the state needs to do something relative to
water, he said. Gatto said he’s heard eye-opening statements of
agreement between representatives from different parts of the state and
therefore different perspectives on the issue.

“There’s more statewide scope on this,” he said. “But it’s still very difficult.”

One concern, he said, is being able to create a “Christmas tree” bond
with enough goodies under it to get broad-based support. An example
would be putting spending from the bond into categories where it’s
plainly obvious it could only be spent on projects in a particular
region as a way to get support from those regions. But those goodies may
also make the bond a target for those opposed to the spending.
From his perspective, Gatto says the bond either should be
straightforward about representing different regional interests, or
written to be obviously vital to the state as a whole.

L.A. traffic officer Richard Garcia walks past the city's new, high-tech parking meters. The new meters are so reliable that the City Council has decided that drivers who park at broken meters won't be ticketed.GLENN KOENIG, LOS ANGELES TIMES - July 31, 2013, 9:36 p.m.

For the last three years, drivers who left their cars at broken parking meters in Los Angeles risked getting a ticket. It was an unpopular enforcement policy, but one that officials said was needed to scare off drivers who broke meters or wrapped them in bags to avoid paying to park.

But on Wednesday, the City Council unanimously agreed to reverse course, saying the policy is unnecessary because new, high-tech parking meters have made a dramatic difference in the equipment's reliability...

...When motorists were allowed to park for free at broken meters — and the devices accepted only coins — roughly 10% to 12% were broken at any time.

"Smart Meter" - Courtesy LA Times

But the 38,000 so-called "smart meters" Los Angeles has installed since 2010 immediately alert repairmen when coin slots jam or the new credit-card readers stop working. Officials say that feature, and the fact the new meters are harder to damage, has raised the city's meter operability rate to 99.9996%. Meters are repaired within a few hours, officials said.

"The meters have never worked better," Transportation Department engineer Dan Mitchell said at a recent meeting with city lawmakers.

The Transportation Department will report back to the City Council in six months on the effects of Wednesday's policy change, including whether vandalism increased...

...Even if the meter is broken, the department said, drivers can stay only as long as is posted — not indefinitely.

The council also voted 12 to 1 to recommend that Gov. Jerry Brown veto Assembly Bill 61, sponsored by Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles), which would ban tickets at broken meters statewide. Councilman Paul Krekorian said regulating parking meter violations is a matter for local government.

Gatto criticized the council vote in a statement, saying " 'local control' does not provide a right to fleece taxpayers." Taxpayers already pay for street maintenance, meter installation and meter upkeep, he said. "Cities should take responsibility and keep parking meters in good working order, not squeeze a double-penalty out of cash-strapped citizens."

Newly seated Councilman Bob Blumenfeld cast the only vote against the veto request. He supported Gatto's bill as a member of the state Assembly.

You can read more at http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-76870153/# # #Mike Gatto is the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee in the California State Assembly. He represents Burbank, Glendale, La Cañada Flintridge, La Crescenta, Montrose, and the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Atwater Village, East Hollywood, Franklin Hills, Hollywood Hills, Los Feliz, and Silver Lake. www.asm.ca.gov/gatto